29 



The expedition of 1644, under the command of Tasman as 

 commodore, consisted of the yacht Lemmen, with a crew of 

 45 sailors and 11 soldiers, under the subordinate command of 

 skipper chief pilot Franz Jacobsz Visser ; the yacht Zeemeuw, 

 with 35 sailors and six soldiers, under the command of 

 Skipper Dirk Comelisz Haan ; and a smaller yacht as tender, 

 the BraJc, with 14 sailors, under the command of Skipper 

 Jasper Jansz Koops. The yachts were plentifully provisioned 

 for eig;ht months. The instructions issued to Tasman, which 

 were discovered at Batavia, and published a little more than 

 a hundred years ago by Dalrymple, constitute a very remark- 

 able document, and exemplify the prescient spirit of the 

 leaders of Dutch East Indian enterprise, for had Tasman 

 succeeded in fulfilling them he would have anticipated by 

 neai-ly 130 years Captain Cook's Australian discoveries, and 

 by about 150 years those of Bass and Minders. 



The instructions begin with a recital of all the Dutch ex- 

 peditions that had made any discoveries in connection with 

 the great southland prior to Tasman's voyage of 1642, 

 concerning which voyage they say simply —"It is unnecessary 

 to relate more here, as you are perfectly acquainted with all 

 particulars." They thus record the discoveries made by the 

 yacht the Buyfhen in 1606, on the east side of what we now 

 «all the Gulf of Carpentaria ; of D'Edel's Land in 1617, on 

 the west coast of Australia ; of Endraght Land further north 

 in 1618-1622 ; of Arnhem's Land on the west side of the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria in 1623 ; and of Peter Nuyt's Land on 

 the south coast in 1627. It will be noticed that the dis- 

 coveries above-named, together with the lands discovered, or 

 seen, by Tasman in his two expeditions, are the only lands 

 shown on the chart, and to this fact I shall refer further on. 



The instructions then proceed thus:— "But to obtain a 

 thorough knowledge of these extensive countries, the dis- 

 covery whereof has been begun (in consequence of the 

 intention of the Company and the recommendation of our 

 masters), [there] now only remains for the future [to find 

 out] whether Nova Guinea is one continent with that great 

 southland, or separated by channels and islands lying 

 between them; and also whether that New Van Diemen's 

 Land is the same continent with these two great countries, or 

 with one of them ; or, if separated from them, what islands 

 maybe dispersed between Nova Guinea and the unknown 

 southland, when, after more experience and knowledge of all 

 the said known and unknown countries, we shall be better 

 enabled for further undertakings." 



Then follow the actual instructions as to what Tasman was 

 to try to do. He was to make his way by the islands in the 

 Banda Sea, Teninber, Key and Aroum (marked T. Acaga on 



